The Perfect Image For Humanity

Finished principle photography on Life's Too Short. It was an eight week shoot and probably the easiest and most fun ever.

It was so stress free and we did such short days that every evening I had time to relax and write stand up.

Now I just need to edit it all down into seven half hour shows. I'll spend most of the next few weeks in an editing suite in central London. Well two editing suites actually as I'm also editing An Idiot Abroad 2.

We arranged for the editing suites to be across the road from each other but I'll still feel like Mrs. Doubtfire running between the two with different hats on. Metaphorically of course. I won't literally be wearing hats. Nor did Mrs. Doubtfire actually. This analogy is flawed.

In the evenings I'll work on The Ricky Gervais Show Series 3.

So that still leaves me enough time to think about posters for my next tour. It's called "Humanity" and I'd like your help with choosing the perfect image.

I've wanted to do this picture for about 20 years. Finally did it this week with Photographer Rich Hardcastle.

And this was done for Rolling Stone Magazine but I think they decided it was a little strong for their demographic.

To be fair when I described it to them over the phone weeks before the shoot they said they'd like an alternative, if I wanted a front cover. When it came to it I decided that I didn't want to do an alternative, as I knew they would go with that.

I was right. They definitely would have gone with the alternative, but since I didn't give them one they went with Rihanna. Ha Ha. Fair enough. I stand by my decision.

I love this pic though by Nadav Kander.

Thoughts? (Reverse psychology might be best, as I'll almost certainly choose the one that most people hate. Ha Ha).

I thought the caption for the first one could be "Eager to please", or 'Dead funny". And I thought the caption for the second could be "Stand up for what you believe".

Vote now.

And don't get annoyed. Just ignore them if they offend you. Or is that the right thing to do?
Obviously as an artist it's important to evoke a strong reaction. But should I care beyond that how it affects people?

Should art have a social conscience?

I'm a comedian. Some people probably object to me using the term artist about such a lowly profession. And some people think I shouldn't even be pondering such highfalutin questions, let alone answering them.

So for a change I'll try to be economical with my opinions and simply try to provoke yours.

First of all, what is a social conscience?

Is it simply an attitude of sensitivity toward and sense of responsibility regarding injustice and problems in society or does it involve positive action?